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Baby Fire Rescue
Location: Washington, D.C. Date: February 9, 1989 Story In an emergency, difficult decisions must be made in an instant. Good Samaritans that keep calm and act quickly make a difference between life and death. Within sight of the Capitol, in southeast Washington, D.C., charred and boarded up buildings show visible scars of lost tragedies. In the Parklands Apartment Complex, yet another fire broke out. Starting in a mattress on the second floor in the back, it quickly got out of control. As it spread to the front of the building, the only stairway began to fill up with smoke and flames. "Daryl Marshall and I had just arrived at the maintenance shop when we noticed smoke on 3401 Stanton Road," said Mitch, a maintenance worker. "So Mitch and I ran down the sidewalks," said Daryl. Maintenance workers headed for the stairway to try to warn any other residents still trapped in the building. "We knew that if anybody was in there, they would get either smoke inhalation or it'd get severe," said Mitch. On the floor above the fire in Mrs. Gross' apartment, eight babies were sleeping. Great grandmother Lillian Gross looks after babies from the neighborhood while their parents are at work. Before she even realized there was a fire in the building, she and the eight babies were trapped in the apartment. "I didn't have any idea what was happening out here," she said. "As we approached the second floor landing, we found that we couldn't go up the stairs, because there was so much smoke and flame. It was almost like someone has something over your face, smothering you. The smoke was that thick," said Daryl. "I opened the door, and it was black out there. So I just slammed it. And that's when the smoke alarm went off." recalls Lillian. With no means of escape through the thick smoke, she quickly gathered the babies together in the bedroom near the front window. The fire dispatcher sent out a call. "I said, 'What are we going to do? How am I going to get these kids out of here?,'" remembers Lillian. "Help me, somebody! I've got babies up here!" she said. "The maintenance men were hollering, 'Throw the kids down, throw them down! We'll catch them!'" "I didn't think they would. When I saw the smoke around the door, that's when I knew I had to drop the babies out the window." Parkland employee Gwen Johnson comforted the one who was unharmed by her 30-foot fall. "I don't remember who went first or last or how they went," said Lillian. "It crossed my mind that the babies may not have been caught, but I would have rather them to have a scratch or a broken arm than to have burns and not be here," Gwen stated. Most of the people who die in fires never see the flames. They're killed by the toxic smoke and gases the fires give off. Infants and small children are particularly vulnerable. Maintenance men were hollering and babies were crying as the sirens signalled the arrival of emergency vehicles. "Nia held onto the window, she didn't want to let go, so I had to pull her hand away to drop her out. She was holding on, she didn't want to go out," remembers Lillian. "I didn't know I would catch him, but I was praying I would. I didn't want to drop the baby, I was just so glad to catch him. I grabbed him real tight and I passed him back. On the other side, you saw babies jump out the window," laughed Mitch. When the police arrived, the babies were moved into patrol cars to keep them out of the freezing weather. The last to go was 9-month-old Juan Tyler. "It was just so much emotion from everybody that gathered around; it was like an arm of blankets; there was no way those kids could've hit the ground, no way," said Gwen. "After I got them out, I hollered for help myself," recalls Lillian. More than 700 preschool aged children in America died in fires in 1989. But on this day, not one baby had been hurt. "I don't feel like a hero, I'm glad the babies are safe. I think the heroes in this story are the maintenance crew because they caught the babies," Lillian stated. "I think the community reacted in a collective effort, no one was harmed, and I think we learned a good lesson that very often people who react, do it the right way," a Washington DC fire warden stated matter-of-factly. "Had those babies not gotten out or if Miss Gross hadn't brought them down to us, their mothers could've said, "We had our babies just in our hands this morning. Tonight, they're gone," said one of the apartment employees. "Could it have been a different story, they all would've been dead. And I just look at them and smile. Thank God," said Lillian ecstatically. Trivia The animated clip of the fire truck driving to the emergency with the U.S. Capitol on the background when the show returns from a commercial break came from this segment. Category:1989 Category:Fires Category:Washington, D.C.